Siempre by Tessa Cárdenas

SiempreLGTitle: Siempre

Series:   N/A

Author:Tessa Cárdenas

Genre: Contemporary

Length:  Novel (189 pages)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 23rd, 2013)

Heat Level:  Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Reviewer: Eli/Mandingo

Blurb:  As a principal dancer for a contemporary New York ballet company, Sean has the privilege of working with student interns. The company’s newest intern, Lupe, is a talented dancer from Purchase College—but the man who picks her up from class really piques Sean’s interest. 

Jaime is Lupe’s cousin, a photography and graphic design student at Purchase. Not long after Sean and Jaime start dating, their casual hookups evolve into something special, something neither wants to lose—no matter how a commitment will complicate their lives. 

Lupe figures out the nature of their relationship and outs Jaime to his extremely religious Arizona family. Sean decides to support Jaime all the way, even though Jaime might choose pleasing his family over a life of love and freedom with Sean.

Purchase Link:   http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4526

Review: The story is set in the world of dance. At the beginning of the story, the character of Sean, who’s a principal dancer in a dance company, openly discusses the lack of minorities in the world of dance. This opens the door for the story to discuss how some cultures view homosexuality and how members of those sub-communities deal with this as part of their daily lives.  This sub-text runs through the entire book and serves to inform the actions of the other half of the couple, Jaime, who is from a Spanish/Catholic background.

Sean and Jaime’s story is not atypical of any relationship where one person is hiding the relationship from their family. At first blush, Jaime is out and happy with this life, but simply accepts that his family will not accept him as a gay man and so chooses to keep the two parts of his life separate.  As the story unfolds, the eventual crisis happens, and the two parts of Jaime’s life collides, it becomes unclear whether Jaime is really as secure with his gayness as he first appears.  His indoctrination as a Catholic weighs heavily on him and it becomes a very interesting plot twist; that being, the balance that gay men of faith have with the church and their families who fail to see them as anything but wrong and needing to be fixed. More importantly, it explores the notion of having to lose one’s family if they are to embrace their life as a gay man and how that affects them.

Sean is nothing short of a martyr in this story, but that is what Jaime needs most if he is to survive his crisis of self.  Sean must stop thinking about himself and his own needs and fears and instead simply be there for Jaime in any way he needs.  The reader will get frustrated with Jaime who as a 24-year-old man seems incapable of standing up for himself and allowing others to make him feel less than simply because of his sexual orientation.

The story is very well written and the reader thoroughly understands the key characters of Sean and Jaime and all the factors that drive their actions. There are several secondary characters who excellently move the story along and they are also superbly crafted and add depth, dimension and colour to the story.  The reader might have enjoyed reading more of the personal struggle that Jaime endured by seeing his viewpoint in the story. But this is essentially Sean’s story and so instead, the reader feels Sean’s angst instead.  The story also ends with some unanswered questions such as the status of Jaime’s relationship with this family and how he plans to move forward, not just in his relationship with Sean, but also in the larger picture as a gay man.  Some of those pieces were left untied, but this is fitting since, as with life, nothing is ever really complete.

Good read!